Are You Confident Enough in Your Organization’s Ability to Mitigate Risks?

Cybersecurity is a huge concern for all businesses. Companies understand that they need to prioritize their security methods in order to ensure they don’t experience major losses due to a potential data breach. Despite major headlines that have repeatedly demonstrated the impact these hacks have on companies, recent studies have found that people are still not as prepared as they need to be in order to mitigate such risks. While these companies may be confident saying that they believe in their organization’s ability to manage cybersecurity internally, according to the data, that doesn’t seem to be working (or entirely true).

One reason that companies are unable to mitigate all the risks is because they are simply looking in all the wrong places. Every time we learn of another major breach, it doesn’t take long to discover that it happened due to something internal. Perhaps a firewall wasn’t updated, an employee used their personal unsecured device to access work, or the network infrastructure the company is using isn’t being maintained properly, leaving gaps all over. Companies don’t want to admit that they are a risk to themselves. And, even if a breach came from elsewhere, the fact that a hacker could get in is usually the company’s fault.

To fix this, an outsourced CIO can come in, take a look at your systems from an outsider’s point of view, and do what they need to do to patch it up.

Everybody Needs to be Vetted Before Being Onboarded

If your company hires contractors, partners, or interns to work with you, they will likely be given access to the company’s network. And, the more often you’re onboarding “strangers,” the easier it is for one of these people to let in a breach. Typically, it’s unintentional, but there are times where perhaps an employee who was recently let go seeks to take some kind of revenge on the business.

However, with the right network infrastructure (these days, it’s the cloud), security is placed on identities themselves, provided for new or temporary employees. When this is set-up by a managed service provider, HR and IT follows the process and works together with the outsourced CIO to prevent any leaks from occurring. Of course, proper vetting of the individual is necessary before providing them with company access as well.

Because Your Day to Day Job Doesn’t Involve Monitoring Security Risks

In general, 70% of respondents off the Marsh-Microsoft Worldwide Cyber Perception Survey reported that their IT departments are in charge of making important decisions about the company’s network. A lot of these decisions naturally have to do with the network’s security overall. As a business leader, this definitely isn’t your department, so you’re counting on the individuals over in IT to make the right choices. But, believe it or not, IT shouldn’t really have that kind of say, either. Their job isn’t just calling the shots on security measures.

While cybersecurity is certainly a task that involves a little work from everyone in the company, it takes a little more expertise than that. An outsourced CIO can help assign appropriate roles to each employee to make sure everyone is doing their part. Additionally, companies who have moved over to a cloud infrastructure are likely to face fewer risks, too, as cloud technology manages many risks on its own.

The Costs Alone Aren’t Worth the Risk

According to Business Insurance’s breakdown of the survey, 40% of respondents who reported a data breach in the last 12 months said that the worst-case scenario lost them $50 million or more. Out of that number, only 19% revealed “they are highly confident in their organizations’ ability to mitigate and respond to a cyber attack.”

With that much money at stake, it doesn’t really seem worth it to take your chances. As a C-level leader, if you’re not totally comfortable in your company’s ability to mitigate such risks, then it’s time to find someone you can trust who can.